- The Nordic Sojourn 2022 — start of trip
- Western Norway — Fjords, mountains, and a lot of rain!
- Longyearbyen, Svalbard, and start of the cruise
- Magdalenefjorden and Gravneset
- Texas Bar and…
- Arctic pack ice and polar bears — what a day!
- Ny London, Ny Alesund, and the massive glacier!
- Poolepynten and fin whales!
- Northeast Greenland National Park and Scoresby Sound
- Ittoqqortoormiit, Greenland
- Patreksfjordur, Iceland and the bird cliff
- Reykjavik and the start of our Icelandic sojourn
- The Golden Circle, Iceland
- Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland
- Westman Islands, Iceland
- The South Coast and Waterfalls, Iceland
- Vatnajökull National Park — Svartifoss, Skaftafell and Glacier Lagoon Jokulsarlon, Iceland
- The East Fjords, Iceland
- Working our way north — canyons, wastelands, fumaroles, pseudo craters and lakes!
- The Diamond Circle
- Akureyri, a breakdown, and a detour
- VR Viking battle, Glaumbær, Icelandic horses, and back to Reykjavik
- Husafell
- Into the Volcano!
This day started off as planned with a visit to Godafoss — the waterfall of the gods. This was actually a little piece of the Diamond Circle that we didn’t complete the day before. Godafoss is really a beautiful set of waterfalls, all part of the Skjálfandafljót River. While only around 40 feet in height, they are about 100 feet wide and actually have some side falls beyond that. There is some history about these falls, though. Back in the year 1000 at the annual Althing parliamentary assembly, Lawspeaker Þorgeir Ljósvetningagoði , who was a pagan priest, made Christianity the official religion of Iceland. After his conversion, Þorgeir threw his statues of the Norse gods into the waterfall. I asked if anyone had ever recovered the statues, but nobody seemed to know.
From there, we headed to Akureyri, which is called the little big city of Iceland. We were going to stop for a quick lunch and a little retail therapy before heading on our way. And that’s when the van’s fan belt broke. Oops! Luckily, Iceland is a small country and our guide was able to call a guy, who had a guy in Akureyri who could fix it. We ended up spending about 3 hours wandering around the town in some pretty strong winds and being amazed at a bunch of kids jumping in and out of the water in the harbor.
At that point, it was a little late in the day to continue on with our original plan, so we decided to head up one of the peninsulas to a little town called Siglufjörður on a narrow fjord of the same name. Getting there was an adventure in itself. We ended up going through three tunnels under the mountains. The oldest of them was only one way, with a few little turnouts along the way if we met someone coming in the other direction (we didn’t). The other two totaled nearly 7 miles in length! Until recently, the only road to get to the town was a narrow road over mountain passes that are now used mostly by sheep. The town is currently around 1200 people, but it has been shrinking steadily since the 1950s when the herring fishing industry started to shrink. Luckily, one of the town’s wealthy sons plowed a bunch of money into the town, started some new businesses in non-traditional areas (e.g., cosmetics), and built a big new hotel. Tourism is now becoming a bigger part of the economy. By the way, one of our favorite Nordic Noir series (Trapped) was filmed here.
In leaving Siglufjörður, we drove northwesterly along the Greenland Sea until we reached the town of Sandärkrökur. Our last stop for the evening was at a place to see fish leather, which I had never even heard of before. We were expecting to visit a workshop, but ended up in a residential area. It turns out that the owner shuttered his workshop during COVID and is now working with a processor in Turkey. Having said that, the owner was happy to take us to his store house in his back yard where he showed us examples of his fish leathers in Atlantic Salmon, Cod, Tilapia, and even Spotted Wolffish. I asked if he had ever worked with anyone to make shoes, cowboy boots, etc., and he said he had worked with one company in Mexico who decided it wasn’t economical enough for their business model. We finished our night at a rather luxurious farm stay hotel and the rains began to fall.
I am a traveler and sometimes clay sculptor, following a long career working in consulting. My work allowed me to travel the world extensively and I was hooked. Today, I travel with my wife/best friend to explore new places, meet new people, and learn new things.
